I bought a few new pairs of pants, but as usual, they’re all much too long. I need to have them all hemmed, but I’m not sure exactly how long to leave them. I plan on wearing heels more, but I wear flats to work most of the time. So what shoes do I wear when I’m getting the length measured? If I do flats, then they’ll be too short if I wear heels. If I wear heels, they’ll be too long when I wear flats. Which is a better option? Or do I wear medium heels and end up with a length that’s not quite right for either shoe height?
You wouldn’t think this would be so complicated. But I want to start classing up my act and dressing better, so this is important!
The pants can only get so long, which to me is always supposed to be the top of instep. When the pants rest lightly on the top of the instep, isn’t that always the right length for men and women? Even in heels, the pants are going to be the right length. Any longer and they’d be bunch up at the bottom, wouldn’t they?
I have flats pants and heels pants. There’s really no other way to do it. In the office, I generally always wore 3" to 3.5" heels. But I have jeans in two lengths. One pair for tennis shoes and a few pairs for heels. I like my hem to be about 1/2" above the floor.
One thing you could do is hem them so they have a clean-looking cuff. Wear them cuffed with the flats and uncuffed with the heels. (some spray starch and an iron will keep the cuff neat). I would do this if having multiple pants with different lengths is impractical. The rule of grazing the instep for proper length is the one I’m familiar with, but these days it seems like distance from the ground is used as a guideline, too.
As Kalhoun pointed out, you need different pants for different shoes. I have pants specifically hemmed for when I wear boots and for when I wear tennis shoes.
As convenient as it’d be to have a one-length-fits-all pair of pants, you really need two pairs, at the minimum, if you’re going to be wearing both heels and flats.